Many said they believed the police wanted to send a strong warning to the organizers — outspoken critics of police violence and racism — and to the broader South Bronx community, which has long experienced police abuses and the effects of systemic racism.
Police conduct during the Mott Haven protest on June 4 amounts to serious violations of international human rights law which the federal, state, and local governments are obligated to observe.
Legal observers and volunteers providing jail support are human rights defenders who are protected under international human rights law and should never be targeted for this work. The attacks on street medics, the obstruction of their work, and the denial of medical care to injured protesters amount to violations of the right to health. Detaining people in cramped conditions amidst the Covid pandemic posed serious risks to public health and could also be considered a right-to-health violation.
While protest organizers handed out masks at the start of the march, and most protesters appear to have been wearing masks during the protest, many of the police officers were not wearing masks, and they pulled the masks off some of the protesters as they were being arrested.
Human Rights Watch has urged governments around the world to reduce their jail and prison populations, given the heightened risk of Covid for detainees and staff. For the same reason, authorities should only engage in custodial arrests when strictly necessary. Especially given that those arrested during the Mott Haven protest were not engaged in violence and presented no immediate threat to commit violence, there was no justification for custodial arrests.
The financial costs to the NYPD and New York City taxpayers of the police crackdown on the protest will likely reach into the millions of dollars. Initially, there are the costs to deploy two helicopters, scores of police officers and supervisors that day — including significant overtime costs — as well as the costs for arresting, transporting, processing, and potentially prosecuting the people who were arrested.
The largest cost, however, will likely come from the resulting misconduct complaints, investigations, and lawsuits. This is due to a deeply entrenched system that prevents meaningful scrutiny and allows officers and police departments to commit abuses with impunity.
Existing structures in the United States to hold police officers to account for misconduct and abuses are largely ineffective. Over the years, legislators have passed laws, judges have imposed doctrines, and police departments and prosecutors have implemented policies and practices that systematically protect officers and police departments from meaningful scrutiny.
The NYPD is tasked with investigating and disciplining its own employees, and the department has incentives to exonerate individual officers to shield the department from liability, to insulate their behavior from exposure to scrutiny that might limit police power, and to validate its own tactics and methods.
Powerful police unions negotiate contracts that give officers protection from discipline and accountability. In recent years, some limited and often superficial reforms have been implemented to try to address police misconduct and improve accountability within the NYPD, such as requirements around de-escalation and anti-racial profiling training, and the use of body cameras.
As with similar incremental reforms in police departments across the country, however, these efforts have failed to change the culture of policing, address systemic racism, or improve accountability for police misconduct. Instead of cracking down on peaceful protesters and stifling their fundamental freedoms and calls for change, policymakers and elected officials in New York City and across the country should listen to their demands.
That requires comprehensive reforms, structural changes, and a reimagining of public safety. State and local officials should take meaningful action to reduce the role of police in addressing societal problems, including through significant decreases to the size and budget of the police force.
They should invest instead in the real needs of communities, including through support to services that directly address underlying issues such as substance use disorders, homelessness, and poverty, and that improve access to quality education, health care, and mental health support. They should empower independent accountability and oversight mechanisms to provide a genuine check on police misconduct and abuse, create a new mechanism to allow for real community engagement in the selection process of the NYPD commissioner, and work to end the detrimental role of police contracts that shield officers who violate rights.
Some of those nurses and doctors are wearing garbage bags. Local governments throughout the United States should do what it takes to end the structural racism and systemic police abuse that people in Mott Haven and communities like it have experienced for far too long.
For this report, Human Rights Watch interviewed 17 participants and observers of the Mott Haven protest on June 4, , including 13 protesters, a legal observer, a medic, and two journalists. Human Rights Watch also reviewed testimony provided to the New York Attorney General from 13 additional legal observers who were present at the protest and 19 additional protesters, as well as accounts given by nine additional protesters in legal documents, and accounts given to the Gothamist and other media outlets by 23 additional protest participants.
In total, Human Rights Watch interviewed or reviewed accounts from 81 people at the protest. Human Rights Watch also interviewed six people who live or work in Mott Haven but were not at the protest, five representatives from New York City-based legal rights and justice groups, two lawyers representing protest participants, a New York State senator who represents parts of the Bronx, and an analyst at the New York City Independent Budget Office.
Human Rights Watch analyzed videos that were recorded during the protest, some of which were posted on social media and others that were shared directly with Human Rights Watch. We also reviewed social media posts related to the protest and police scanner recordings from the 40th and 41st precincts on the evening of June 4. Senior department officials did not respond to our request for meetings. Human Rights Watch was unable to identify police officers present in Mott Haven during the June 4 protest who were willing to speak with us.
The MTA acknowledged our request but had not responded at time of writing. The NYPD denied our request, and we have appealed. Most interviews were conducted over the phone; seven interviews were conducted in person in Mott Haven. Researchers informed all interviewees about the purpose and voluntary nature of the interviews, and the ways in which Human Rights Watch would use the information, and obtained consent from all interviewees, who understood they would receive no compensation for their participation.
Human Rights Watch has withheld the names of some individuals featured in the report at their request. On May 25, , a police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota dug his knee into the neck of George Floyd and held it there for over eight minutes until he died. It occurred less than two months after police in Louisville, Kentucky, shortly after midnight, barged into the home of Breonna Tayler, a year-old emergency room technician, and shot her dead.
Local, state, and federal laws and policies, and the protections in police contracts, have allowed police departments to investigate their own alleged misconduct and remove or restrict accountability mechanisms — fueling a culture of impunity among police forces and encouraging further violence and abuse.
Police violence across the US is inextricably linked to deep and persisting racial inequities and economic class divisions, with many laws and policies dating back to the eras of slavery and colonialism that have prioritized policing and criminalization as the primary state response to a range of societal problems.
The Covid pandemic — which infected almost six million people and killed over , in the US between March and August , making it the country with the greatest human loss worldwide — has laid bare these devastating racial inequalities.
The police in many places responded to these protests with unnecessary and excessive force and other abuses: beating up protesters, conducting mass arbitrary arrests, and deploying police and national guard forces to discourage protests. Law enforcement officers have also used their vehicles as weapons, slamming car doors into protesters and in at least one instance hovering helicopters dangerously low above crowds, using the rotor wash to disperse protesters, snapping tree branches, and sending debris flying.
Many of those arrested during protests across the country said they were held for hours, and sometimes more than a day, in crowded, filthy conditions with no protection from Covid Many were not informed of their rights or the reason for arrest, and they were not allowed to make a phone call. Upon release, many were given a summons to appear in court for participating in an unlawful assembly, blocking traffic, and other minor offenses. Scores of journalists were among those whom the police assaulted, arrested, or otherwise harassed during the protests — sometimes on live camera.
Legal observers from the National Lawyers Guild — who attend protests to document potential human rights violations and provide support to those arrested — were assaulted, teargassed, and arrested while monitoring protests in at least a dozen cities, despite their visible neon green hats and other identifying markers. Starting on May 28, protests erupted across the city for four days, resulting in multiple confrontations with police and almost 1, arrests.
That night, as protests continued in some neighborhoods, there was looting in midtown Manhattan, Soho, and on Fordham Road in the Bronx. Continued looting in certain areas reportedly prompted Mayor de Blasio to expand the curfew from 8 p. For the next two nights, on June 2 and 3, protests continued despite the curfew, with inconsistent responses from the NYPD. Protesters were allowed to continue past the curfew in many instances, whereas the police trapped and arrested others.
On June 3, there were no reports of burglaries or vandalism of businesses and only protest-related arrests across all five boroughs, with less than 1 percent being charged with felonies — a sharp decrease from previous nights. This has come to the fore in stark terms during the Covid pandemic. Residents there have been twice as likely to die from Covid than those in other boroughs. Even before Covid, the South Bronx was at the bottom of health outcome ratings for New York State, with disproportionately high rates of premature deaths as well as diabetes, asthma, and hypertension — which are all linked to coronavirus complications.
Education indicators are also lower than in other parts of the city. School District 9 in the South Bronx has the lowest high school graduation rate and the highest dropout rate in the state. Districts in southern and northwestern Bronx have also ranked highest in the city for evictions, rent burden households paying 30 percent or more of their income towards gross rent , serious housing violations, and percent increase in residential sales prices.
Mott Haven is also one of the most heavily policed neighborhoods in the city and has been plagued with disproportionately high rates of police misconduct for years. Officers told the New York Times that they felt pressure to downgrade crimes and even overlook crime reports from those unlikely to complain, like immigrants. It is in this chasm of government neglect and police harassment that the community has lost trust in law enforcement.
Residents expressed frustration by the lack of resources in their neighborhood yet watch funding funnel into enforcement that results in their harassment but neglects their genuine concerns.
In this context, community leaders and activists have repeatedly called on government officials to invest more in education, health care, housing, and social services to address problems like homelessness and drug addiction — and to give residents in Mott Haven and the broader South Bronx the same opportunities to live, learn, and thrive as those residing in other neighborhoods across the city.
In a May letter to de Blasio and Corey Johnson, the speaker of the City Council of New York City, 11 elected officials from the Bronx urged them to stop the plans for building the Mott Haven jail and to instead reallocate the funding to invest in the needs of vulnerable community members, including the response to Covid and funds for programs that provide critical educational and economic opportunities, such as the previously cancelled Summer Youth Employment Program SYEP and the planned expansion of early education for 3-year-olds.
Many of these same concerns brought people out on the streets to protest in Mott Haven on June 4. The protest in Mott Haven on June 4, was a community-based and community-driven response to the killing of George Floyd. The formation consists of groups primarily led by Black and brown women such as Take Back the Bronx, which has resisted gentrification in the South Bronx for the past decade; Bronxites for NYPD Accountability, which has confronted police precinct commanders about police abuse in the Bronx for the past six years; and Decolonize This Place, which addresses racism in the art world and its connections to global militarization.
The groups are dedicated to police and prison abolition, they provide important services to vulnerable community members, and they fight for other causes like racial justice, decolonization, and anti-capitalism. Some of the flyers for the FTP4 protest depicted a police car burning and a cartoon of a man jumping over a policeman.
Punch that cop! To the contrary, the FTP4 protest was entirely peaceful until the police carried out their violent assault. This appears to have been a deliberate effort at fearmongering on the part of the NYPD to help justify their planned crackdown on a group that is known to be critical of the police and capable of mobilizing public pressure.
Those who participated in the FTP4 protest came from Mott Haven, the broader Bronx community, and other boroughs across the city. From about 6 p. Organizers handed out face masks, water bottles, and food — both to protesters and to passersby. From the start, protesters and observers described an unusually heavy police presence, including officers in riot gear, and many with their badges covered up.
At about p. Just after p. They described being well received by community members, with a general positive atmosphere to the march — despite the seriousness of the issues — and many in the neighborhood joining in as they passed by.
The march made a special stop at La Morada restaurant, where organizers thanked the restaurant owners for their support to the community and their work defending the rights of undocumented residents. For about the first 30 minutes, some police trailed behind the protesters, but they did not interfere or try to stop the march. To avoid a confrontation with the police, the group turned east on th Street to Brown Place.
Another group of police officers and police cars blocked the southern intersection at Brown Place, preventing the protesters from turning right on Brown Place towards th Street. The group instead continued east on th Street. As they approached Brook Avenue at about p. Within moments, the group was trapped, or kettled, on a narrow street with no means of escape. Video footage and accounts from protesters and observers reveal a frenzied and chaotic scene as the protesters realized that they were trapped.
Parked cars blocked escape routes on the sides. Video footage that Human Rights Watch verified showed that police kettled the protesters by p. Protesters interviewed by Human Rights Watch raised concerns about increased exposure to Covid, as they were cramped together, and it was impossible to maintain distance. At p. Other than essential workers, no person shall occupy Thank you for your cooperation. Just before the protesters were trapped, one of the organizers, Shannon Jones, and a group of about 20 other organizers and protesters made it onto Brook Avenue.
When the bicycle police formed a line to block the marchers, these people were separated from the larger group. Video footage shows Monahan saying something to the other officers standing nearby, who all then form a line.
Thirty seconds later, they violently assaulted the group, throwing most of them to the ground and arresting them. A supervising officer in a white shirt aggressively grabbed Jones, put his hands around her neck, and then put her in a shoulder lock before throwing her to the ground. Meanwhile, at about p. Some other cop then grabbed my hand and twisted my finger and broke it. Then another cop sprayed me in the face with mace.
Then they dragged me on the ground and beat me with batons. Somewhere in the process of being cuffed, I had a knee on my neck. A young teacher from the neighborhood who came to the protest on her own, Chantel Johnson, described her experience:. It was just chaos. Protesters also struggled with the effects of the pepper spray and pepper balls.
As the beating continued, the police officers began making arrests. They forced people to sit on the ground and bound their wrists behind their backs with zip ties, often so tight that people said that their hands went numb or they felt they were losing circulation.
Amid the chaos, one woman had a seizure and another woman started going into labor. While the majority of those beaten and arrested were protesters, the police also targeted legal observers, medics, and bystanders, including essential workers who happened to be passing by.
The legal observers are lawyers and law students trained to observe and document police conduct, including potential human rights and civil rights violations. The National Lawyers Guild has had a legal observation program since They are exempt from the curfew. If non-lawyers are volunteering to provide essential support to the lawyers, they are essential as well.
Soon after the kettling began on th Street, the legal observers were among the first to be targeted, as the police prevented them from documenting police abuses and writing down the names of those who had been arrested. The police knew that they were detaining legal observers. This did not deter the officers. Instead, the arrests appear to have been deliberate.
Video footage from p. As a society in general, mental health is still surrounded by stigma , so it is doubly important that police officers are made to feel that it is acceptable for them to talk about their mental health struggles. Rather than feeling isolated with their trauma, stress, or unmanageable emotions, police officers should be made to feel that they know exactly who to speak to for support and that those supports will be in place and easily accessible when they are most needed.
This also means the police departments should be trained to recognize the symptoms of PTSD so that they can intervene and offer support when an officer may not recognize their own symptoms of post-traumatic stress.
In order to reduce the use of excessive and deadly force, it is important to improve the relationships between the police department and the community, particularly the Black community, as this sector is generally the one most affected by police brutality and subsequent anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress.
This could take the form of programs and initiatives that place police officers out in the community in a helping or educational role instead of a policing role. It could also mean having the police department work with the community or participate in marches and rallies to show their support and understanding. This was seen taking place when some police departments chose to attend Black Lives Matter protests and marches and kneel in support instead of taking a combative stance.
When both the police officers and the racial minorities can begin to see each other as individuals rather than as groups to fear or cast stereotypes upon, then real change will begin to occur in those implicit biases that fuel racial tension among police officers and also a general distrust of the police force among racial minorities. In addition to the above measures, it is also necessary to continue to conduct research to understand the psychology behind police brutality.
Which personality factors are most likely to correlate with excessive use of force? Which mental disorders show the highest correlation with deadly use of force? What forms of training help most to reduce implicit bias and improve the situation? Ongoing research on these and other topics is the cornerstone of moving forward and improving the situation when it comes to the excessive use of force by police officers and the disproportionate impact that it has on racial minorities.
What about defunding police departments? This is a tactic that has been brought up as a solution to police brutality.
Defunding the police means taking money away from funding the police department and instead sending those funds to invest in the communities that are struggling the most and where most of the policing occurs. It's very much similar to the concept of directing money toward prevention instead of dealing with problems after the fact. While not a simple solution, there is merit in funding programs and communities that are struggling instead of putting more people behind bars.
Understanding the psychology behind police brutality is the first step toward fixing the problem. Unfortunately, the situation is inherently one that needs to be fixed from the top down, beginning with the systems of government and how they allocate their funding.
When better training and education is in place for police officers, as well as better mental health supports, then better outcomes may result. It's also worth noting that while this problem seems to be most prominent in the United States, other countries may have their own racial tensions for example, in Canada and Australia there is tension between government and Indigenous people.
The United States, however, struggles more than most with the use of deadly force in the form of gun violence. For this reason, the psychology of police brutality is only one piece of the puzzle. The other piece will be understanding the problem of gun violence in the United States, and how it compares to rates of gun violence in other countries. Learn the best ways to manage stress and negativity in your life. Amnesty International. Police violence. Department of Justice.
Contacts Between Police and the Public, Published December J Soc Soc Work Res. From theoretical to empirical: Considering reflections of psychopathy across the thin blue line. Personal Disord Theor Res Treat. Why it's so rare for police officers to face legal consequences.
Published June 4, American Bar Association. Qualified immunity. Published December 17, D'Amore R. Breonna Taylor: What we know about her death, the investigation and protests. Global News. Updated June 6, BBC News. George Floyd: What happened in the final moments of his life. Published July 16, CBS News. Former Milwaukee officer not charged in fatal shooting of mentally ill man.
Published December 22, O'Kane C. Eric Garner's mom says seeing a black man plead "I can't breathe" is "like a reoccurring nightmare". Published May 27, Family sues over fatal shooting at Ohio Wal-Mart. Published December 16, Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race-ethnicity, and sex. The officer corps has gotten more diverse over the years, with women, people of color, and LGBTQ officers making up a growing share of the profession.
Speaking about such a group in blanket terms would do a disservice to the many officers who try to serve with care and kindness. However, the officer corps remains overwhelmingly white, male, and straight. Federal Election Commission data from the cycle suggests that police heavily favor Republicans. And it is indisputable that there are commonly held beliefs among officers. The officer fires first, and misses; Brannan shoots back. In the ensuing firefight, both men are wounded, but Dinkheller far more severely.
It is screened in police academies around the country ; one training turns it into a video game-style simulation in which officers can change the ending by killing Brannan. Jeronimo Yanez, the officer who killed Philando Castile during a traffic stop, was shown the Dinkheller video during his training.
The purpose of the Dinkheller video, and many others like it shown at police academies, is to teach officers that any situation could escalate to violence. Cop killers lurk around every corner. But contrary to the impression the Dinkheller video might give trainees, murders of police are not the omnipresent threat they are made out to be.
According to Bureau of Labor Statistics data , about 13 per , police officers died on the job in Compare that to farmers 24 deaths per , , truck drivers But police academies and field training officers hammer home the risk of violent death to officers again and again.
Officers constantly find themselves thrown into situations where a seemingly normal interaction has gone haywire — a marital argument devolving into domestic violence, for example.
For this reason, police officers are, like the rest of us, required to wear seat belts at all times. In reality, many choose not to wear them even when speeding through city streets. If I have to, be able to jump out of this deathtrap of a car. Despite the fact that fatal car accidents are a risk for police, officers like Doyle prioritize their ability to respond to one specific shooting scenario over the clear and consistent benefits of wearing a seat belt.
Because officers are hyper-attuned to the risks of attacks, they tend to believe that they must always be prepared to use force against them — sometimes even disproportionate force.
Many officers believe that, if they are humiliated or undermined by a civilian, that civilian might be more willing to physically threaten them. But when the officer decides the suspect is disrespecting them or resisting their commands, they feel the need to use force to reestablish the edge.
Police officers today tend to see themselves as engaged in a lonely, armed struggle against the criminal element. They are judged by their effectiveness at that task, measured by internal data such as arrest numbers and crime rates in the areas they patrol. Rizer, the former officer and R Street researcher, recently conducted a separate large-scale survey of American police officers. One of the questions he asked was whether they would want their children to become police officers.
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